Lauren Wilkinson’s first novel is American Spy (2019), a tale of espionage, love and betrayal set in West Africa and New York City during the Cold War in the 1980s. Her protagonist is FBI intelligence officer Marie Mitchell, a young black woman working in an old boys’ club. Sara Nović (Girl at War) called it “suspenseful, tender, and funny, always smart and searingly honest.” Christopher Castellani’s new novel, Leading Men (2019), is a reflection on the nature of fame, private life, and romantic entanglement set in the social world of Gay 20th century icons Tennessee Williams and Truman Capote in the 1950s. Novelist Lauren Groff called it, “a tender, psychologically devastating, and gorgeously precise novel. An extraordinary book.” Castellani is the artistic director of Boston’s GrubStreet, one of the country’s leading creative writing centers.